Future Love
by Emperor Zeref Dragneel
Summary: A shocking decision by the Feudal Lord regarding Naruto's and Sakura's lives causes Tsunade to act in response, sending the two off on a training trip to Turtle Island. On this trip, however, further unexpected developments occur, entwining the fates of the two shinobi even further. Will they manage to escape unscathed from the forces that appear in their lives?
1. Chapter 1

**Future Love**

 **Full Summary:** A shocking decision by the Feudal Lord regarding Naruto's and Sakura's lives causes Tsunade to act in response, sending the two off on a training trip to Turtle Island. On this trip, however, further unexpected developments occur, entwining the fates of the two shinobi even further. Will they manage to escape unscathed from the forces that are on them? A strange old man, plus two very nostalgic faces are but some of the trials the two will have to go through on this eventful trip.

 **Main Pairings:** Mostly NaruSaku, plus another one that you will have to see as time goes on.

 **Timeline:** Starts immediately after the events of the **Kage Summit Arc** , and partially through the **Confining the Jinchuuriki Arc.**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. This is purely for entertainment purposes.

 **A/N:** This is a story I have written as a request from **LegendaryWriterS.** All credits go to him; I am simply a partaker of his request.

 **Constructive criticisms is always welcome ;)**

 _The Envoy's Letter_

The Fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, Tsunade, was currently seated in her office, having recently recovered from the coma she was in after the Village's invasion. Life in the village had mostly returned to normal, however, the woes of the Hokage were just beginning.

"Is that all then?" She asked her dark haired assistant who was standing beside her. Shizune had just finished giving the woman a detailed report of all the events that had transpired in the Land of Iron, something which Tsunade had never expected to wake up to. Her mind was still reeling with all the facts, as she tried to make light of what had caused such things to happen. To her earlier question, Shizune nodded brusquely in response, keeping her dark eyes focused on her Master.

"How did you find out about all this Shizune?" The blonde woman asked. Her first thought, of course, was that Shizune had gone to the Land of Iron herself, but knowing the dark haired woman to be someone who did not act so brashly, Tsunade dismissed the initial thought. What Tsunade was still in shock about, however, was how things with Sasuke had deplored that quickly. Not to mention Danzo…..that old man who had been a thorn in her side for as long as she could remember….was now _dead?_ Honestly, Tsunade was at a loss of what to feel regarding that information. While she was sure she had wanted nothing more than the man to be gone for an awfully long time now, receiving news of his demise at the hands of the Rogue Uchiha seemed bizarre.

"Yes, Hokage-sama, the information was given to me by Hatake Kakashi and Yamato once they came back to the village a few hours ago," Shizune replied curtly to the Hokage.

At the mention of the names of those two Jounin, Tsunade placed two fingers on her forehead. Of course, she surmised, she should have expected to hear the silver haired man's name. She had chosen to disregard the information regarding Naruto and Sakura at first, since the news regarding Danzo held more importance, but now that she reflected on it, she felt a vein throb on her forehead in irritation.

Tsunade could not understand why Naruto had gone to talk to the leader of another village, in this case the Raikage, to ask him to spare Sasuke. _Didn't he understand the political implications such an action held?_ While Sasuke was still a problem that the Hidden Leaf had to deal with, it was easy enough to handle him and keep the ANBU from hunting him down. However, once he had become a full-blown problem for the other villages, Naruto had no business going to tell them what to do with the Rogue Ninja. While it vexed her pondering about it, Tsunade realized that she needed to issue a formal apology to the Raikage later on regarding the behavior of one of her subordinates.

And the last person she had a problem with….. _Sakura._ Sakura…..where on earth would she even start with her apprentice? The more she regarded Sakura's actions, the more Naruto's seemed to pale in comparison. What in the name of all that was good had even possessed Sakura to try and kill Sasuke on her own? Leave aside the matter of confessing to Naruto in the middle of a crowd; since Tsunade knew no matter how much the matter exasperated her, it was none of her business intervening in it. Naruto and Sakura had to come to terms to that on their own.

What she could intervene in though, was the fact that Sakura had tried to dispose of an S-class missing Ninja by herself. _Had she no regard for her life?_ Removing her fingers from her forehead, Tsunade prepared herself to send Shizune to summon the two members of Team Seven, before she heard a knock at the door. A bit surprised, she called for the person outside to enter.

The door swung open slowly, revealing a medium sized man who adorned a set of garbs a stark contrast to those in the village. The Hokage wasted no time realizing the attire rang a bell in her mind, recognizing the unexpected person as an envoy from the Feudal Lord's office. Still, it perplexed her why the Feudal Lord sent an envoy to her at that moment, as the last time the man had come to the village, it was after the village had been destroyed by the Akatsuki Leader, Pain. There had been no discrepancies that had plagued the village since then, well, save the matter regarding Danzo, but that was another matter altogether.

The medium sized envoy walked silently till the middle of the room, where he bowed stiffly to the blonde woman as a form of introducing himself. Steadying himself upwards once more, the envoy placed one hand in his garbs, speaking to Tsunade for the first time since his entry," Hokage-sama, I have a letter for you from the Feudal Lord." His hand resurfaced once more, holding a particularly thin scroll that had been folded up neatly. He proceeded to place the message on her desk, to which the Hokage proceeded to take it, albeit hesitantly.

Unfolding the parchment, she proceeded to go through the letter wordlessly, her eyes scurrying through the contents in kind. Upon reaching a particular segment, however, her eyes widened in surprise, and a gasp escaped her slightly parted lips, drawing the attention of her assistant.

"What's wrong, Tsunade-sama?" Tsunade finished going through the scroll, then wordlessly, handed it to her assistant, who took the letter in a bit of a haste. Shizune similarly proceeded to go through the contents of the letter, but upon reaching the same area Tsunade had expressed shock at; she could not help but voice her astonishment.

"This is…..a validation for Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura's marriage?!"

 **A/N:** That's the first chapter, friends! I'm sorry it came out awfully short, but what happened here is a small part of the bigger picture, so you can rest assured that the following chapters will be the usual 6000 words plus.

 **Next chapter:** Tsunade tries to come to terms with the letter from the Feudal Lord, as she uncovers a large deceit. Sakura appears at the Hokage's office ….but where is Naruto?


	2. The Secret Plot

**Chapter 2**

 **The Secret Plot**

Shizune was in utter shock after reading the contents of the scroll that had been delivered by the messenger, her hands trembling slightly as she held onto the edges of the paper. Her mouth was slightly agape, and she seemed as if she was struggling to say something, but to no avail as her words came out in a slur. Realizing she was at a loss, she looks towards the Hokage beside her, preparing to voice her opinion of the matter.

"Tsunade-sama, what is the meaning of this?!" She asked in a bit of a higher pitch than she intended, but at the moment she was cock sure that the blonde woman herself would not care if she stepped out of line a little, given the current situation.

To her further astonishment, however, the Hokage herself had her hands clasped on the desk before her, her hands covering her mouth partially. Her face was contorted into a small frown, as she regarded the messenger standing in front of her with her chocolate eyes. She seemed to be preoccupied with something else currently rather than the worries of her assistant, something which Shizune did not know what to make of.

"Where did you get this letter from? Which official in the Feudal Lord's office exactly handed you this letter?" Tsunade spoke up finally, breaking the tense air that had enveloped the room after the bombshell had been dropped.

The messenger seemed none the wiser over the blonde woman's current pensive state, answering in his usual monotone voice," Yes, Hokage-sama. I received it from the Feudal Lord himself."

Tsunade was not satisfied. "Who exactly pushed for the validation of this certificate?" Getting over her initial shock of the matter, the blonde woman had come to realize that she did not possess any knowledge regarding this matter at all, only being made aware a few minutes past. It must have been another of the incidences she missed when she was still in her coma, she figured with a feeling of dismay.

"I'm not exactly sure, Hokage-sama, but from what I've heard from talks in the Feudal Lord's office, it seemed to have come from one of the Hokage's advisors," the messenger responded in his usual monotone voice, keeping his gaze affixed on the Hokage's eyes, which seemed as if they were ready to pierce holes in him if her mood changed for the worse.

Luckily for the young man, Tsunade's mood did not change so drastically, evident from the way she arched one of her eyebrows to his reply just then. Waving her hand towards the door, the Hokage dismissed the messenger, but not before informing him that she would send a letter to the Feudal Lord once all the due preparations were made. Taking a stiff bow as he had in the beginning, the messenger exited the office without as much as a backward glance.

Once the young man left the office and the two women in it as he had found it, the dark haired assistant wasted no time in displaying her reaction over the entire conversation that had just cropped up. Slamming her hands on the desk in front of the Hokage, she immediately confronted the blonde woman," Tsunade-sama! Why do you seem so calm about all this?!" She had waited for the entire conversation between her master and the messenger to pan out; assured that she would immediately voice her opposition to the entire debacle, but seeing that she had voiced her affirmation had caused the anger in Shizune to boil over. There was no way she was going to stand for something like this.

Tsunade merely closed her eyes as if in meditation, before telling her assistant in a subdued voice," Be quiet, Shizune. "This seemed to do the trick, owing to the small gasp that escaped the dark haired Medic's mouth momentarily, before she fell into a queer silence. Tsunade continued, "That messenger just now…he wasn't lying when he told us everything, so that means this document is 100% genuine and not forged."

Shizune was taken aback further, momentarily releasing her hold on the table's edges and her body arching backwards by a little. A wave of realization hit her at that point, as she attuned the Hokage's questions to the messenger as a way of testing him. She was keenly observing his behavior as he dished out his answers, looking for any oddities or discrepancies in his demeanor to make sure that he was completely certain of everything he said. True enough, he had been telling the truth in everything he had said, and Shizune felt herself awed slightly at her Master's keen observation skills.

But still, there was something which bothered her a little. "Tsunade-sama, was there any need to do that when you already knew him? I mean he's the same kid who has always been sent here by the Daimyo in case of any messages, right?" Her voice was laden with uncertainty, and she had her hands folded across her chest and her head bobbed to the side slightly as she looked at her Hokage.

Tsunade nodded brusquely, "That is true, however with a document this preposterous, it wouldn't be stretching things by considering that someone may have forged the letter and sent the messenger to deliver it. Case in point," Tsunade took up the scroll that was lying on her table, unfolded it carefully, then pointed at the bottom where the information ended," there's only one seal on this document, belonging to the Feudal Lord. And the messenger just now said that someone pushed for this to be validated, right?" She asked her assistant with an air of presumption, already figuring that Shizune would join the dots. True enough, Shizune's expression voiced the realization she had come across, owing to how her eyes widened. The dark haired woman knew, as she had for a while now, that whenever there was an official document from the Feudal Lord that had not been decreed by his word alone, there would be two seals, one for the Daimyo and one for the other party.

Withdrawing the document from Shizune's sight and placing it on her desk once more, Tsunade then told her assistant in an air of seriousness," In a most probable case, the other party wanted to remain anonymous and not make anyone aware of their intentions."

Nodding, Shizune added," It must be someone who knows Naruto-kun and Sakura-san really well then, Tsunade-sama, since marriage," she made sure to place special emphasis on the word before continuing," is a pretty huge deal. The only time the Feudal Lord ever validates a marriage between Shinobi was when it was passed under the Clan Restoration Act."

The blonde woman knew full well what the Clan Restoration Act entailed. An act that was passed immediately after the Warring States Era in order to make up for the vast number of clans that were decimated during that time or reduced to only a few living members, it was a decree that was passed in order to bring the affected clans back into fruition. The Act itself was usually passed when the last surviving member of a particular clan in the village has come of age and is able to lead the clan properly, meaning it required them to marry a girl, either of their choice or a choice passed by the village heads, as a way to bring forth descendants to prolong the clan's existence.

Still, she could not help but be troubled; could the same thing be in effect in the present? It wouldn't be too far-fetched to consider. Naruto had definitely come of age and was the last Uzumaki clan member in the village. Sakura herself was also ripe of age, of course, and was already at an age where she could bear children. However, despite how well and dandy the matter looked, there was something that still nagged at the back of Tsunade's mind. The entire matter seemed a tad too convenient.

Shifting her gaze back to her dark haired assistant, who had not moved from the front of Tsunade's desk, Tsunade spoke up to her once more, "Shizune, the boy said that the validation came from one of the advisors, right?" She needed to confirm something first.

Nodding, Shizune replied," Yes, he did, but he also said that he got that information from rumors, so the information may not be entirely valid." Shizune felt as if it was the appropriate moment to voice her concerns over that piece of information.

Tsunade sighed in exasperation," At this point, we may need to depend on the rumors themselves if we want to get to the bottom of this matter." In her mind, numerous possibilities were working themselves out as she was deducing which of her advisors would have made such a shocking decision. Luckily enough for the woman, she only had two to ponder over; Koharu and Homura.

The two were well within the prime of their ages, and opted to seclude themselves from the village matters; choosing to leave that to Tsunade. The only time they intervened is when they deemed matters to be of dire importance, something that did not happen on a frequent basis in the village. Consequentially, by choosing to seclude themselves from the village matters, this meant that they did not care much about the individual faces of their citizens, or even much less, their names. None of them displayed any inherent knowledge regarding Naruto on a personal level, which included his relationships with the other shinobi. The only manner in which they recognized the blonde man was simply as the village's weapon, a Jinchuuriki, a prized asset that was never supposed to leave the village at any costs. Well, so much for that idea.

As if on cue, however, the blonde village leader remembered a third person aside from the two old fossils. He had served as one of her advisors as well till recently, before his demise in the Land of Iron.

"Danzo," she mutters absent mindedly to no one in particular. Shizune saw her master's lips part slightly, but was unable to catch wind of what she had just said.

"Tsunade-sama?" She asked in a tone of uncertainty.

Releasing a gasp, Tsunade looked at Shizune as if she were seeing her for the first time, owing to the dazed look in her expression. She then says, this time her words pouring out one after another in a manner of haste," Danzo's the one behind everything." The words sounded true even as she said them. She then mentally berated herself for not catching onto such a simple thing earlier. It all seemed to make perfect sense now. From the moment Danzo placed Sai in Team Seven, the ninja team had been kept under constant watch by the other members of Root, so it would be entirely plausible for Danzo to be informed of the dynamics between Naruto and Sakura, thereby picking her out as a suitable partner for him.

That, plus the matter of,

"The Feudal Lord was always scared of Danzo. It would be easy for him to intimidate him into silence and tell him not to include Danzo's seal in the scroll," this time Tsunade chose to voice her realizations, again to no one in particular as her eyes did not seem to be focused in a particular direction. There was a grim smirk on her face at the end of her narrative. She did not particularly like the idea of having been outwitted by the old fox, but she was glad she had caught on to this scheme early enough. There was no way she was going to let this ploy go through.

Turning to her dark haired assistant, who still looked befuddled over her master's reactions for the past few minutes, she addressed her, "Shizune, I need you to send a team of ANBU to Danzo's office right now. It doesn't need to be a large team, at most three will do. Then-"

Shizune could not help but interrupt her Hokage's statement midway," Hokage-sama, the office itself is currently under the watch of some members of Root. They won't allow anyone inside."

This did not perturb Tsunade in the slightest," Tell the men you send there that in case they find any ROOT members standing guard, they received the Hokage's permission to enter the premises. I want a full search of the area to be conducted, and any documents found should be brought here with immediate haste. Is that understood?"

In response, Shizune simply made her way to the door of the office, her instructions still fresh in her mind. Even if she had no idea what Tsunade was planning, in any case, she was pleased that there still seemed to be a way forward even after all that had transpired. Her hand was on the handle of the door, when Tsunade called her once again,

"One last thing, Shizune."

The dark haired woman paused, before Tsunade issued her final instructions," Go and call Naruto and Sakura for me."

 **A/N:** There's the second chapter guy. A bit longer than the first, but well there is more content this time and things are finally making sense, so I think it turned out okay. This chapter was supposed to be longer than this, but I figured if I added more content it might be a bit too much and a lot has already happened here, so well the rest will be in the following chapters of course. Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favorites so far!


	3. Tsunade's Decision

**Chapter 3**

 **Tsunade's Decision**

"You called for me, Tsunade-sama?" The pink haired girl, who had just entered the office a few moments ago, questioned her master. She had received the summons to head to the Hokage's office half an hour earlier, something which surprised her mildly as she had not expected to be called so impromptu. Tsunade had even told her that she could take the day off from the hospital owing to the events that had taken place in the Kage Summit, as she still had a feeling that Sakura was still shaken up a little by the events that had transpired in the Land of Iron.

Yet here she was now, and her master was looking at her intently, as if trying to discern something unreadable from her protégé. The stern way Tsunade was looking at Sakura unnerved her a little, and she was almost tempted to fidget a little so as to abate her growing curiosity. After what seemed to be an eternity of silence following Sakura's query, Tsunade finally spoke up.

"Sakura, I'm going to ask you a very personal question here." She did not wait for the pink haired girl to respond, registering only the slight arch in the younger female's eyebrows, "Have you ever considered marriage as a part of your shinobi life?"

The question was blunt and straight to the point, and it came as a complete shocker to the pink haired girl. Her eyes widened a little, and she looked at Tsunade as if seeing her for the first time in her life. At first she thought that she had misheard things, but as if to answer her unvoiced concerns, Tsunade's gaze still remained unrelenting, giving the girl the truth that she had not misheard anything, nor that Tsunade had said something that she should have taken back.

Clearing her throat a little after getting past the bombshell that was dropped on her and reorganizing her temporarily jumbled thoughts, Sakura complied with an answer," Yes, Tsunade-sama, when I was younger my dream was to grow up and marry Sasuke." At first, she had wondered whether it was in order to divulge her childhood fantasies to her mentor, but since she knew that the blonde woman would have guessed either way the person who Sakura had thought of tying the knot with owing to how she was never subtle with her romantic advances in her childhood years, she figured it would be better if she just laid out everything in the open. Tsunade's question had triggered a set of memories which she had not pondered on in a long time, particularly due to the fact that she was not proud at how her younger self acted at times around the Uchiha prodigy, but most of it was since she knew that those things happened a long time ago, and dwelling on them would do her more harm than good.

A subsequent memory prodded at her, of the first time Team Seven was formed.

 _I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like is….I mean; who I like is….My future dream is….._

Now that she thought about it, she had been such a stuttering person back then around the dark haired Uchiha that she felt slightly embarrassed just remembering it. Her cheeks flushed a little at the thought, before she banished it to the annals of her mind and decided to focus on what was happening in the present.

Tsunade, on the other hand, was taking note of the way Sakura had worded her answer just then. One thing that bothered her more than anything was the use of past tense in Sakura's sentence, as if that was a dream that she no longer had. Of course, Tsunade had been privy to the way Sakura felt about Sasuke, and a small part of her told her that she had also considered marrying the dark haired man when she grew up, but she could not shake the odd feeling she felt from Sakura's answer just then.

"And now?" She proceeded to ask, wondering what her protégé thought of the notion of marriage currently.

Sakura tilted her head slightly to the side, in thought, placing one hand under her chin, "Well, I can't say I've completely given up on marriage, of course, but well, if I were to be completely honest, it's not exactly my first priority like in the past. Of course, I still want to get married, since well, I've always wanted a family of my own, but for the moment, I want to become a splendid shinobi before considering marriage."

As soon as the response escaped her lips, Sakura found herself wondering when that part of her changed. There was no doubt in her voice even as the words rung in her ears, and her answer slightly amazed her.

The blonde woman placed her arms on the table together, blocking her mouth from view, before asking bluntly, "If, you were to get married once all was said and done, would you still want it to be with Sasuke? Like how you wanted it in the past?"

Sakura was perturbed by the unexpected question, a slight gasp escaping her lips, unheard by the Hokage. Still, it wasn't a question that she found impossible to answer, so after giving it some prior thought she said," I don't really know, at this point," She seemed to be talking to herself more than the Hokage, as if it was an answer she should have given a time before the present. "Things have changed too much between now and then, and we aren't exactly the same as we were back then."

A hint of a smile flashed across Tsunade's face, and she looked downward a little.

 _You've really grown up, Sakura._

The pink haired Medic was growing increasingly nervous over what she had been summoned for to the office, as Tsunade had not particularly issued any instructions to her, or any missions of the sort, and she wasn't so foolhardy as to believe Tsunade had called her there to discuss something as trivial as marriage.

She decided to try her hand again," Um, Tsunade-sama, why did you call me here?"

That seemed to do the trick, as an expression of realization crossed Tsunade's face for a split second, before her usual stoic expression returned.

"You're right, I'm sorry. Forgive me, Sakura," she placed one hand on her forehead, rubbing her temples slowly as if trying to contemplate something. Removing said hand from her temples, she looked at Sakura once more, "It will be faster if you just see it for yourself."

Her hand then stretched out over the table, holding the scroll with the Daimyo's certificate, and Sakura moved to take it, at first unsure whether the document was meant for her. Seeing no one else in the room, she proceeded to unfurl the parchment, her heart gnawing with increasing anxiety since she was not sure what she was supposed to expect from the contents of such a document. The fact that it looked official did not help to qualm her growing worries, and silently, she began going through the contents of the now unfurled letter, her green eyes trailing each line as they travelled lower and lower.

When Sakura reached the segment that contained the marriage bit, one of her eyebrows arched upwards, and an amusing smile broke out on her visage, which Tsunade did not miss. Still, she had decided to hold her peace till Sakura had completed going through the parchment. It did not take too long, fortunately, since hardly a minute passed before Sakura folded up the parchment neatly, placing it on the Hokage's desk and resuming her original position.

Tsunade studied her student's facial expression, and was genuinely surprised to find out that there wasn't the slightest trace of shock or astonishment on the young girl's face. It made her feel glad herself, although she could not exactly pinpoint why.

"Why don't you seem that surprised?" The blonde woman inquired of her student, her curiosity getting the better of her. She was glad however that she did not have to dread the chance of Sakura overreacting.

 _At least you were more composed than Shizune when you read that._

"Well, at first I was surprised," Sakura started, and the tone of composure in her voice was evident to the Hokage," but since I saw it was a decision made by the Feudal Lord, there has to be more to it."

The pride in Tsunade's gaze just then almost made Sakura feel embarrassed, and she struggled to maintain eye contact with her teacher for a moment.

"I'm so glad you're my student," Tsunade remarked with a tone mirroring the same expression as her eyes, and Sakura's cheeks burned momentarily, a small smile forming on her face.

Tsunade was not quite done with the pink haired girl though," Sakura, I want you to honestly tell me what you feel regarding the matter you've just read about," she said in a frank manner.

The pink haired girl bobbed her head to the side, her eyes traversing the roof as she mulled over a suitable answer to give to her teacher just then. "I feel kind of conflicted about it, I guess," she was not entirely sure how she was supposed to take such an issue. While of course she was calm about the matter, she still could not deny that it came as quite a bombshell to her.

True enough to her answer, of course, Sakura had never quite considered the possibility of marrying Naruto. Well, that was a notion that she bore in the past as a 12 year old girl, what with him being annoying and all. But she realized that like with Sasuke, things had also changed with Naruto. They had been through so much together, that Sakura was aware that she wouldn't be who she was that day if it wasn't for him. He had grown into someone irreplaceable for her.

Then again, wasn't marriage a completely different issue? It required plenty of thought from both parties, and also time, which she had spent lots of with Naruto now that she thought about it.

The blonde woman seated at her desk could not help but notice how eerily silent her student had fallen. Perhaps she had asked a problematic question, since it wasn't exactly easy to answer questions pertaining to marriage when you were handed a certificate and informed that you were supposed to marry someone you knew for a long time out of the blue. She decided to use a different approach this time, while bearing in mind that even if it would come off as rude and nosey of her, her student needed it at the moment. Steeling her nerves, she asked,

"Sakura, what do you feel about Naruto?"

The astonishment was evident on Sakura's face, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes having grown to the size of bulbs. She looked as if she was trying to say something, owing to the way her lips parted over and over again, but the words were stuck in her throat and only stutters came out as she tried wrapping her head around the question she had just been asked. It was the first time someone had out rightly asked her what she thought about her blonde teammate. To make the matter more unbelievable, it was a question that she had been asking herself for a while now.

Sakura was not entirely sure she could define her relationship with Naruto as just normal friendship anymore. It just didn't feel right to.

"I-" she started, but seconds later she realized that she did not know what she was going to follow up with.

Fortunately for the pink haired girl, the sound of the door behind her being swung ajar rung in her ears, bringing her to the realization that someone else had just entered the room. Looking back, she realized it was Shizune, the dark haired woman steadily making her way to the front desk where Tsunade sat, but not without sparing Sakura a glance and a small greeting. The much older medic had some documents in hand, and she was clutching them to her chest as if for dear life. The pink haired girl released a breath she did not realize she was holding, sighing with relief, as she was spared having to answer a question she was not sure she was ready to answer at that moment.

"Welcome back," Tsunade told her assistant as she took her position beside her. "Were you able to find anything?" She inquired of her, hopeful that her assistant's search of the old fox's office had turned up fruitful.

A brusque nod was all that Shizune could reply with, before she proceeded to place the documents she still had in her hold on the desk just before the Fifth Hokage. Tsunade took the first of the pieces of paper, her brown eyes carefully studying the contents of the paper, then a second one, and before long the small stack of documents was gone through. The frown on Tsunade's face that had appeared after completing the first document only deepened with each subsequent paper, something that unnerved Sakura and Shizune a little. Tsunade's anger was never a good sign.

Once she was done with the stack of papers, she gritted her teeth in frustration.

"That Danzo…so this was his plan then…." She grumbled with irritation, her gaze cast away from the two females currently in the room with her and still focused on the stack of papers before her. She then abruptly looked up at her pink haired student, her expression still carrying a hint of irritation, saying," Sakura, there's something you need to know."

Shizune did not waste any time catching on to what Tsunade wished to divulge to Sakura. She did not like the idea one bit, and moved to protest, her voice carrying a slight sense of worry and desperation for her pink haired junior," Tsunade-sama! I don't think this is something that Sakura needs to hear!"

Tsunade was not quite in the mood for Shizune's concerns, as the situation itself had become quite dire. "This is something that concerns Sakura as well, so I think by all rights she needs to hear this," she stated, in a conclusive manner that did not provide room for any other protests. The dark haired woman next to the Hokage took the unsaid hint, falling quiet and allowing Tsunade to continue what she was intending on doing.

The brown eyed woman continued," The documents that Shizune has just brought here has uncovered a plot that was set in motion by Danzo from the moment that Feudal Lord decreed that validation certificate." There was a dark tinge to Tsunade's reply just then.

Sakura gulped a little, her earlier confusion over the marriage deal ebbing away and leaving in its place a feeling of dread and growing fear. She was aware that anything involving Danzo never turned out well, her most recent evidence being his decision regarding the execution of her teammate, Sasuke.

The Hokage continued," There's something I need to ask you first, Sakura. What do you know of the Uzumaki clan?"

"Not really much, there isn't a lot of information left over about them, and from the few records left in the library the only thing I got was that they were a prominent clan that lived in the Eddies before they were destroyed in one of the Great Ninja Wars. Why ask?" The Medic replied, wondering where Tsunade was going with this conversation.

The Hokage huffed a little, closing her eyes momentarily as she tried to gauge the correct words to use in the situation. Opening her eyes once more, she continued," Since Naruto is the last known Uzumaki in Konoha, Danzo hatched a plan that involved using the offspring brought forth from your marriage with Naruto, who would be Uzumakis, as weapons for the village. He intends to use the heirs from your marriage for his own purposes.

Horrified was an understatement for what Sakura felt at the moment. A wretched feeling sparked in her stomach, threatening to make her throw up right there in the Hokage's office, and as if on instinct, she covered her mouth as she tried to abate the awful feeling that had riddled her body just then.

Shizune was none the better, as expected, and she was glaring daggers at Tsunade, even if she knew that the Hokage was not the one to blame in such a situation," The nerve of that man! To go as far as involving innocent children in such a twisted scheme!"

"That's…monstrous," Sakura managed to say underneath her breath, having managed to avoid herself from spilling her guts on Tsunade's floor. The disgust she was feeling, however, did not seem as if it was going to recede any moment soon.

"Why Uzumaki Children though?" Shizune persisted, overcome with a certain urge to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible. Things did not sit right as they were.

"I'm not exactly sure why, but according to this documents there are hints about something to do with the clan member's life force and vitality," Tsunade replied, doing her best to remain calm despite the outrageous nature of the situation. She was well aware that losing her cool just then would certainly serve no good, and the calmer she remained the better her chances of finding a way to work around the constraints she had found her two juniors under.

Shizune pondered a little over the reply, finding some small satisfaction, but there were still too many vague issues that needed to be resolved before anything. "But what exactly did he intend to do with the kids?" She persisted, struggling to remain as calm as possible herself too. It was working, for the most part.

"Possibly to make an army out of them to protect the village in case it was ever attacked or to siege neighboring lands in case disputes occurred," Tsunade remarked, as calm as she had been for a while now. She allowed her words to sink into both her juniors with her then before adding on," With the Uchiha Clan, it was difficult to place them under his thumb due to their pride, but if the descendants were tempered from a young age, it would be possible for them to be raised according to Danzo's will. The added advantage would be that he planned on being Hokage for that long, so naturally they would be compelled to follow him," she concluded, shaking her head slightly to show the feeling of dismay she felt regarding the entire issue.

The dark haired woman still had a lot on her plate that day, "Yeah, but Danzo is dead, so the validation should be null, right?" Her voice was hopeful this time, as she latched onto the small glimmer of hope that was present in the situation. She hoped against all odds that it would amount to something.

Her hopes were to come tumbling down moments later, as Tsunade said in a curt manner," The one who passed the certificate was the Feudal Lord, not Danzo. As long as the Feudal Lord is still around the validation is still viable." She knew how much it irked her just to admit such a truth, but it was a truth nonetheless, and the first step to trying to make light of the situation was accepting the facts as they were. So far, the blonde woman had not latched onto any solution for the current situation, and it only grew hopeless.

"No way," Shizune weakly muttered, defeated, as her last hope was snuffed out violently. She hung her head as if in shame.

"I think Naruto should also be informed of this, right?" Sakura wondered out loud, finally being able to catch her breath and steady her body. The first thing she took note of once she had calmed down was that her teammate was yet to arrive, and it was such an important meeting he was missing, so the only thing that followed was that he needed to be told of everything that had transpired in his absence.

To her query, Tsunade merely shook her head in denial. A vein popped in Sakura's forehead, an irate feeling sparking in her, as she proceeded to close the distance between her and the Hokage, placing her hands amidst the table with a greater force than was deemed necessary, all sense of caution forgotten. She could not fathom why Tsunade wanted to keep such a matter secret from her teammate. It was the first time Sakura had outwardly expressed anger to her master, something she was sure she was going to regret later, but for now, the matter with Naruto was far more important.

Tsunade was aware of her student's qualms, expecting the outburst of anger prior to it happening, so she was not particularly fazed by it. She stated in a resigned manner to her pink haired protégé," Think about it Sakura, if Naruto found out about this what do you think he would do? My wager is that he would probably storm off to the Feudal Lord's office in protest, and tell the man face to face to revoke his decision. Do you know how many offenses he will have committed by doing that?" Tsunade stated in a wary tone, placing extra emphasis on each word in order to make sure Sakura understood just what was at stake there.

Luckily, Sakura was a bright girl, and she saw the truth in Tsunade's words. Her anger ebbed away, and she released her hold on Tsunade's table, retreating a few steps back to her original position. A look of guilt was placated on her face, and she bowed humbly before mumbling an apology to her senior," Sorry, Tsunade-sama." Her voice was lower than she had intended it to be, but Tsunade was able to catch wind of what she said, waving her hand to tell Sakura that it wasn't something she needed to apologize for.

"In any case, it would be best if we kept the matter to us for the moment, and not informed Naruto, not until things have cooled down a little. Speaking of which, where is Naruto? He should be here by now." Tsunade turned to her assistant, having entrusted her with the role of getting both Sakura and Naruto to her office earlier that afternoon. She was surprised that she had not taken note of Naruto's absence till that moment. Sakura had shown up with almost immediate effect, but there was still no sign of Naruto. It was uncomely for him to be late whenever he was summoned to the Hokage's office, usually being the first to bust in there itching for a mission or a chance to leave the village.

The dark haired woman seemed meek as she replied to the blonde woman, fearing that she would invoke her anger by informing her of the unfortunate news," About that, it seemed as though Naruto suddenly disappeared from Ichiraku an hour earlier. At the moment we have ANBU currently searching for him throughout the village, but there have been no signs of him yet. "Her voice was husky with that response.

As expected, Tsunade was immediately livid and her face did not hide any of the worry and anxiety that plagued her right after.

"Find Naruto immediately," she ordered her dark haired assistant, causing Shizune to nearly keel back in fear owing to the expression on Tsunade's face.

However, miraculously as if on cue, just then there was a knock on the door of Tsunade's office. Sakura was the first one to respond and made for the door with much needed haste, opening it with her heart threatening to burst out of her ribcage. Immediately her eyes caught site of a flash of yellow on the other side, the nervousness she had been feeling came to a halt and she held her chest to show her relief at Naruto finally showing up.

"Sup. Teuchi-san told me that you were looking for me earlier, Granny, "the blonde man was in his usual high spirits as he greeted the people currently in the room, oblivious to the disarray he had caused earlier with his mistimed absence. Tsunade had never felt so relieved in her life, releasing a sigh of relief, her assistant mirroring her actions next to her. Now that Naruto had turned up, Tsunade was somewhat glad that he had chosen that moment to show up, since she realized that if he had shown up early she may have not had a chance to discuss what she had told Shizune and Sakura. It was a blessing in disguise the more she pondered on it, but that did not curb her from wanting to find out just where Naruto had been.

Sakura was the first one to talk to the blonde man who had just graced them with his presence. Placing her hands on her waist and fixating him with a stern look, she said in a slightly irate manner," Where have you been?! You shouldn't make us worry like that!"

Naruto placed his hands up in front of him as if in self defense, prepared to answer, but before he could say anything Sakura pinched his cheeks and pulled them apart, eliciting a small wince of pain from Naruto.

"It hurts, it hurts, Sakura-chan!"

 _How on earth did I even consider marrying this idiot?_

Tsunade was next, "Naruto, where were you? There were ANBU on the lookout for you but they didn't find you." Her tone was its usual stoic manner.

"Where….I was suddenly summoned to Mount Myoboku to see the Great Toad Elder," he started, rubbing his still sore cheeks and looking at his Hokage.

"With the Great Toad Elder?"

"Yeah, he used a Reverse Summoning Jutsu.

Shizune chimed in next," Well, it's a relief to see you're okay, Naruto." She smiled at him briefly, her earlier worries about Danzo forgotten for the moment.

"Yep, I'm alive and well," Naruto responded in a jovial mood, placing a fist on his chest for added effect.

Tsunade was still not quite done with him yet," But why did the Great Lord Elder summon you?"

"Giant Gramps Sage had a prophecy for me too. He told me that I'm going to go to some resort and encounter an octopus."

Sakura and Shizune were at a loss on that point.

"Huh? An octopus?" Shizune idly repeated, not sure what exactly Naruto meant by that.

With those words, however, a memory prodded at Tsunade, one of a meeting she had a week before with the Raikage in the Land of Lightning regarding the Allied Shinobi forces plus the status of the last two Jinchuuriki left in the elemental nations. The details were iffy at best, but Tsunade could never forget the form of the Eight Tails that had inhabited Kumogakure ever since the Great Wars.

And now Naruto had mentioned it again.

This was it. This was the answer she had been looking for.

Tsunade smiled a little, looking at the duo of Team Seven members, and then said confidently, "Naruto, Sakura, there is a mission I need the two of you to be on by tomorrow morning."

 **A/N:** A few notes regarding this chapter, the last few scenes were the scenes that happened exactly in the anime/manga, with a few changes; of course, since I felt as if I didn't exactly need to include everything as it happened in canon, only the parts that will affect this story as a whole. Of course, I hope that doesn't curb in the enjoyment of this chapter.

As for the part where Tsunade does not know about the Uzumaki Clan in detail, I'm taking it right out of Kushina's words when she met Naruto, regarding how when she was brought as a Jinchuuriki to the Hidden Leaf, not even the Legendary Sannin were aware why. Following canon events the secrets of the Uzumaki Clan should only be aware to a chosen few, among them not including Tsunade of course.

Other than those two issues, I feel as if this chapter turned out longer than I expected, I honestly didn't expect it to become this long, but well the more the merrier I guess. I hope that it turned out okay, of course, you may have an idea of where the story may be headed next, but still, I hope that that doesn't prevent you from reading to find out more. Really, thank you for all the reviews, favorites and followers so far. Make sure you enjoy this chapter too!


	4. Would I Make a Good Spouse to You?

**Chapter 4**

By the break of dawn the following morning, the blonde man and the pink haired woman were already ashore, their destination the Hidden Cloud Village. Surprisingly enough, Naruto had been early that particular morning, and while the sun's rays were breaking out in the horizon, he and Sakura were already afoot to the nearest shore to the Hidden Leaf Village. Tsunade had already given instructions regarding their departure to the owner of the ship who was supposed to take them, so they wasted no time in boarding the ship and leaving land.

Now standing on the helm of the ship, Naruto found that he was unable to get himself back to sleep. He had barely gotten a wink of sleep the previous night, owing to Tsunade's decision regarding him and Sakura, but now that they were heading away from the village, the blonde man slowly realized that the decision may not have been so rash after all. After all, it wasn't every day where you were sent off to another village with your female teammate to hide away while your village leader sorted out your marriage, right?

"Can't sleep?" Sakura asked him, as she placed her hands on the edge of the helm joining her teammate. Naruto shifted his gaze to the Medic Ninja, and was slightly surprised to see that she looked as fresh as she would when he would bump into her in the middle of the day. At least one of them was able to sleep peacefully that night.

Naruto yawned," Yeah, well, I just realized how much I'll miss the village when we're gone, plus my warm bed," he concluded with tone of sadness.

Sakura looked at him warmly for a second, before playfully punching him on the arm. "Don't look so down about it. It's only for a short while."

The pink haired girl was right. After Naruto resurfaced the previous afternoon and narrated the tale about how he had been summoned by the Great Toad Elder, and how he was supposed to meet an Octopus, Tsunade seemed as if she had just got an epiphany. She gave the two members of Team Seven an impromptu mission, dotting down the details on a scroll right there and then, that they were supposed to head to Hidden Cloud to rendezvous with someone there, then from there they were going to receive their next set of instructions. When Sakura had tried to ask why they were supposed to head to the Hidden Cloud village, Tsunade had hushed them both away, telling them that the details of the mission would be made clear once they were in the foreign village. Pleased that none of them proved to be overly curious after that, Tsunade instructed them to go home and get as much sleep as they could because they needed to wake up exceptionally early the following day.

Naruto did not reply to what Sakura had said just then, resting his head on his arms on the edge of the helm. The Medic regarded him with her eyes a while longer, before speaking up again," That's the first time you've talked about missing the village when on a mission."

She caught the shadow of a smile on Naruto's slightly exposed mouth, before the blonde man replied," Yeah, well, this time I don't know what's waiting for us on this mission. Granny Tsunade said that we weren't supposed to open that scroll till we met the Raikage, so I know this sounds weird coming from me, but I'm nervous."

Sakura widened her eyes in surprise a little, not expecting the usually eager-to-go-on-a-mission-and-leave-the-village- Uzumaki Naruto to say that he was actually feeling nervous about something like this. While she herself was sure she was not 100% confident in where they were going, she tried her best not to show her anxiety. It wouldn't do for both her and her teammate to be nervous at this point.

"Hmm, you are right, but in times like this I usually say having the benefit of the doubt. Things may turn out good, you never know."

Naruto buried the rest of his face underneath his hands, only leaving a glimpse of his blue eyes. Sakura thought she could see the sea in them. A few seconds of silence elapsed, with only the sound of birds flapping in the air and the water parting to make way for the boat, before Naruto spoke up, cutting through the short moment of serenity they were sharing.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Yeah?" She turned her head to face the blonde man curiously.

"I'm sorry."

Sakura was perplexed." Why do you say that?" She did not miss the slight tone of despondency in his voice just then, and all of a sudden Naruto's mood for the past few minutes made a whole lot of sense. It wasn't just about getting enough sleep and being nervous, he had been struggling with something that had been on his mind for a while now and Sakura felt a little ashamed that she had not noticed such a thing earlier. The brightness that had been on her visage earlier dulled a bit.

"Well, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have to be dragged into this entire mess…you know….with the marriage and all," Naruto continued in a glum tone, his eyes anywhere but on the pink haired girl.

The pink haired girl was entirely baffled by his reply just then. She paused a while, finding that any response she was about to give was stuck in her throat. She couldn't believe her teammate for a minute just then. Was he actually beating himself up about that?

"If I didn't spend that much time with you, maybe Danzo wouldn't have picked you out for this, I shouldn't have gotten you involved in this…."the words came tumbling out of the blonde man's mouth, but he was rendered speechless when he felt a soft hand pressing on his tougher one. Sakura pressed her fingers lightly on Naruto's hand, and the sudden feeling of warmth that washed over Naruto's body made him forget the guilt he was feeling at that moment.

 _I can't believe he was worried about something like this. Idiot._

"Hey, you don't have to apologize over something like this. You don't even know if for a fact that if I didn't spend all that time with you Danzo wouldn't have still chosen me. We're both in this together if you haven't noticed," Sakura replied to him in a tender voice. This time, Naruto turned his head to look at his teammate, and the warmness he saw in her green gaze melted the negativity he was harboring in his heart a moment.

He was defeated. How could he continue to protest after being pierced with that beautiful stare?

The blonde man looked at the sky awhile, where the sun was well on its way to its peak and the water was near shining with the rays overhead, before resigning himself then going to seat at the edge of one of the ship's cabins. He didn't want to enter the interior of the ship just then, being content with enjoying the sea a while longer.

"What, tired of staying here already?" Sakura teased him, before joining him where he sat. She had also grown weary of staying in the same position.

Naruto looked to the side a little before answering," Yeah, and thanks to a certain someone I wasn't able to get any sleep before the sun rose up!"

Sakura chuckled." Your welcome." The blonde man focused his gaze on her, his blue eyes resting on hers, before asking her," Hey, Sakura-chan, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but have you ever been to the Hidden Cloud before?"

The pink haired girl wasted no time in answering his query," Not really. Even in the time you were away with Jiraiya, I spent most of my time here in the village training in the village with Tsunade-sama and helping out in the hospital. But…" she bobbed her head to the side a bit.

"But?" Naruto asked curiously, focusing his gaze on his blonde teammate.

Sakura pressed a finger to her cheek," It's the village I've always wanted to visit the most."

That took Naruto completely by surprise that he had to laugh a little," And why is that?" He asked, this time a tone of amusement in his voice.

His teammate was not so willing to reply this time," I won't tell." She crossed her arms over her chest in a defiant manner.

Naruto was not about to give up so easily though. Nudging closer to his female teammate, he persisted, in a cheeky tone this time," And why is that, Sakura-chan?" He made sure to place special emphasis on the way he said her name at the end of the sentence.

Sakura's shoulders rose a bit, and then relaxed as she resigned herself to answering her teammate's question. Her cheeks flushed a little, but she did her best to hide her embarrassment as she complied with Naruto's question," It will sound stupid, but anyway, if you really want to know, I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you." She sighed a little," Well, I've always thought that Hidden Cloud is the village is the place I wouldn't mind staying as a resident in, of course after Konoha of course. Their uniforms are really cool."

Naruto looked at the girl as if he was seeing her for the first time, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets and his mouth slightly aghast. He then guffawed a little, but managed to cover his mouth in time before he broke out into a torrent of laughter. In all his life, he had never thought of Haruno Sakura to ever bear such thoughts regarding another hidden village, but knowing it now served as a pleasant surprise, and he could feel his suppressed laughter growing more and more.

A vein popped on Sakura's forehead, and she closed her eyes as a feeling of ire bloomed in her. Clenching her right fist, she grabbed the front of Naruto's jacket roughly and looked at him menacingly. That did the trick, partially, as Naruto raised his hands before him in defense, before Sakura asked in an annoyed tone," And what's so funny about that?"

"No…no…..it's a….uh…..unique reason…." Naruto struggled to form a coherent response, the last of his spasms of laughter dying down in the face of the fierce gaze that was being focused his way. If there was one thing he could admit to being genuinely scared of in the world, it was Haruno Sakura's temper. He had been on the receiving end of it for way too long now to not know what it felt like.

Fortunately enough, this wasn't one of those times, since the Medic released him from her grip, resuming her initial position beside him. Naruto released a sigh of relief, grasping at his chest to lessen the pace of his now erratic heartbeat. Not daring to look at his teammate for fear that she would clobber him for it, he contented himself with staring out at the sea before them. Before long, however, he found himself pondering over how to calm down his still seething teammate.

"Hmm….." he placed his hand to his chin in thought, closing his eyes momentarily.

"What is it?" Sakura snapped back almost immediately, her eyes still shut. Naruto could see a vein throbbing in irritation at her forehead. He decided to tread carefully.

"While we are still on the subject of villages, Sakura-chan, I say in my opinion, the coolest looking village I'd like to visit is Sunagakure."

That went well.

The pink haired girl opened one eye, glancing at Naruto. A small smirk was growing on her lips, and she unfolded her hands from her chest to look at Naruto. For a moment, Naruto wondered whether he had done something wrong, a seed of doubt growing in his heart.

"Heeeh," Sakura remarked, while edging closer to the blonde. Naruto felt a bead of perspiration make its way down his visage.

She stopped an inch away from him," Yeah right," she sneered," you're only saying that because Gaara is the only person you know from another village. "She paused a little, her eyes focused on the sky above her as she pondered on what she was going to say next. A smug smile then broke out on her face as she landed the finishing blow," I'm sure you know nothing about Sunagakure."

Naruto gasped in surprise, but Sakura's gaze was unrelenting. The Medic was cock sure that when they had been to Sunagakure, the only time they were there, her male teammate had been so focused on saving Gaara that he spared no time in checking out the Hidden Sand.

As expected, he protested. "That isn't true!"

She had him well caught there. "Prove it."

Naruto fidgeted with his right hand as he immediately moved to prove the pink haired girl wrong," Well, as for people I know from other villages, there's Kankuro and Temari…." He started, but Sakura held a hand to quiet him.

"From Gaara's village, they don't count," she replied in a cool manner. This was becoming increasingly pleasing for the young Medic.

The blonde man was flustered," Hey….!"

"Yes?" Sakura replied innocently, tilting her head to the side in a cute manner.

"Try again," she added on, but the abashed look she saw on Naruto's face was enough to tell her that she was winning this small challenge she had dished out.

The Nine Tails Jinchuuriki closed his eyes as he racked his brain in an attempt to come up with something that he could beat Sakura with. The pink haired girl drew nearer and nearer to him, intending to see how much he would struggle before he gave in, owing to the veins that appeared on his forehead. In a final attempt, Naruto scratched his head in vain, but alas nothing came up. He opened his eyes and looked at the green eyes that were now before him in defeat.

Sakura could not hide her extreme happiness. Arching back her head she released a hearty laughter that filled the air with a pleasant sound. She rested her back on the surface of the wooden cabin for support and laughed until tears were glistening at the edges of her eyes. Naruto was visibly embarrassed, this time unable to hide it as his entire face had turned beet red. Still, he had to admit that a small part of him was pleased at having made the pink haired girl smile and laugh after he had embarrassed her earlier. It was nice hearing her laugh so heartily.

Focusing his cerulean gaze on her, Naruto thought to himself whether this was one of the times when the two of them acted like a married couple. He did not have the slightest idea of what marriage entailed, of course, but he figured it would be something like what he had with Sakura. Laughing like normal, joking around like normal with your significant other and just laying back and enjoying the sun as you bickered on some boat somewhere. Would all that change once the two were wedded?

The question resurfaced some doubts that he had been harboring in his heart for a while now, and he decided that this would be as opportune a moment as any for discussing them with Sakura. Even if he would decide on running away from the pending issue, it would catch up with him sooner or later, so dealing with it now seemed to be the best choice of action.

"Well, what do you know about Kumogakure?" Naruto asked the girl. It was still too early to think of mentioning the matter with marriage. Any wrong word and he might create a rift between the two of them. He wondered why Sakura had chosen not to say anything so far regarding the marriage between the two of them. Perhaps she was feeling just as nervous as him about bringing the matter up.

In response to his question just then, the pink haired girl simply placed a hand on his shoulder. She had managed to recompose herself, her fits of laughter having come to an end, but there was still the hint of amusement on her face when she grinned at Naruto.

"My dear Naruto, if I told you that, then it would ruin your enjoyment of the place when we got there."

Naruto pouted and looked to the side. Sakura had to admit that was a cute facial expression on his face just then. "Stingy."

The Medic simply smiled at him cheekily before sticking out her tongue and making a peace sign with her fingers.

A few seconds of silence elapsed, with none of the two saying anything to each other, before Naruto decided to take the chance to ask what he had been intending to ask for a long time now. He had drawn a blank on coming up with any more stuff to talk about.

"Ne,Sakura-chan," he started, "what do you think about all this? The marriage thing I mean."

Sakura's eyes widened a little at Naruto's sudden question. She had not expected him to ask such a question, as she herself was not sure she wanted to answer such a question. She had been hoping that Naruto would not raise the issue, as much as she did not want to. Still, now that he had asked, she had no choice but to answer.

There was a brief moment of silence, which of course, did not go unnoticed by Naruto, and his first thought was that he had stepped on a land mine. She released a breath she did not know she was holding before complying, "Tsunade-sama asked me the same question in her office, well, before you appeared." The blonde man's eyebrows arched up in surprise, but he allowed Sakura to continue,"I don't know…at first, it surprised me, but not as much as it feels right now. At the moment, it feels a bit…weird for me, I guess." She spoke with as much honesty as she could muster.

With that response, Naruto felt a small stab of pain at his heart. Her response just then was definitely not a good sign. But it was okay. She was honest. And he loved that about her.

"What do you mean weird?"

The Medic looked to the sky in thought a moment as she considered Naruto's question. Refocusing her gaze on him, she proceeded to answer his question," I can't really place my finger on it, but well, the way we are right now, this closeness between us, I don't want it to disappear. I'm kinda afraid when we actually get married, it might ruin what we have right now.

This surprised the Jinchuuriki more, as he had never realized just how much Sakura valued their friendship, at least until that point. In a small way, he was also afraid of the same thing, but more than that, he was afraid of the fact that he would trap the girl he loved in a loveless marriage, at least on her part. Naruto was almost entirely sure that he could try his hardest to make Sakura happy, although in his heart he still doubted if he was the one Sakura really wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

Caught up in his now conflicted thoughts, he only managed a stout reply," I see." He did not know whether he was supposed to say anything else at that point.

The Medic did not seem as if she had heard his short response, or if she did, she gave no signs of it. Turning to face him, Naruto realized that the ball was now in his court.

"What about you? What do you think about it?" As soon as the question left Sakura's lips, she realized that in the midst of all that had happened; she had never gotten to hear what Naruto thought about the marriage bit. And Tsunade herself didn't seem overly eager to ask him his thoughts regarding the matter when they were still in the office, being preoccupied with coming up with a solution. Perhaps this was the most opportune moment she would get to hear Naruto's views on the situation.

The blonde man struggled to find a response for a moment, owing to how he racked his head back and forth in motion, "To tell you the truth, I'm kinda excited about it."

The Medic arched one eyebrow in response, but allowed Naruto a chance to continue. He seemed like he still had more to say regarding the matter. "I've kinda always dreamed of….you know," he continued, and there was a faint stain of red on his cheeks. Sakura did not notice it.

She edged closer to him to hear what he wanted to say better, "You know?"

Naruto closed his eyes in an attempt to abate his growing embarrassment, before the words spilled out of him in succession," Marrying you, ever since I was a kid."

There was a short moment if pause, as Naruto's words still hung in the air and Sakura let them sink into her. She let out a small gasp, and in her chest she felt her heart beat faster. A small blush crept onto her cheeks, and the pink haired girl was surprised to find herself growing embarrassed by her teammate's response. She was not sure what exactly had spurned that on, but in the midst of the growing embarrassment she was feeling, there was a small feeling that she identified as happiness. At least one of them had chosen to look at the matter positively, she surmised, before her curiosity got the better of her and she decided to ask the blonde man another question.

"So, you think I'd make a good wife then?" The words were out before she had even gotten a chance to reflect on them. She got a little surprised at herself for asking such a bold question, but with the way the conversation was going, such a matter was bound to pop up sooner or later.

Naruto's shoulders raised a little before relaxing again, and he responded in a more confident tone this time," Well, yeah, of course I do."

The happiness in the girl beside him seemed to swell at that moment, as her face beamed into an expression of bliss. She pressed her fingers together at her chest as a small sigh of elation escaped her mouth at that moment, followed by a soft giggle. Naruto could not exactly tell whether she was flattered by what he had said, or genuinely pleased, but he decided not to dwell on the matter for long. After all, seeing her face the way it was that moment proved satisfying for him, and he liked seeing her like that all the time.

There was a hint of pride in Sakura's face as she spoke up this time, pointing idly in the air with her finger for added effect, "But of course, I won't just let you eat ramen all the time like you've been doing."

Naruto's shoulders slumped as a wave of disappointment came over him. He looked at the girl beside him in disbelief, a glum expression on his face and his mouth slightly parted as he was shocked by what the girl had said. Sakura, more than anybody else, knew just how much he loved ramen, so hearing her say that she would limit his consumption of ramen once they had gotten wedded came as quite a shocker." Hey you can't do that!" He protested immediately, not about to allow himself to be denied one of his best pleasures in life.

Sakura's gaze was unrelenting, much like her response to his protest," Oh yes I can!" She placed her hands at her waist and towered above the blonde man on her knees in front of him. "You have to listen to your wife you know." This time, there was a smug expression on her face, and she looked extremely proud of herself at the moment.

"Not yet!" Naruto shot back, a defiant look on his face as he regarded the girl before him, but soon enough he found himself getting increasingly pleased by how the conversation had turned. It had stemmed from a simple question from him, but now, he realized that he was having a fantastic time with the girl beside him. All the embarrassment that he had been feeling earlier suddenly seemed a shadow of the past, and it was just the two of them now having fun. As they had always been.

His teammate playfully punched his shoulder in response to his latest jest. Naruto rubbed his arm a little, before asking her," Do you think I'd make a good husband?" He had offered her his response on what he would think of her as a wife, so now he wanted to know what she would think of him as her significant other.

Pressing a finger to her chin in thought as her eyes studied the cloudless skies above them in thought; she soon shifted her gaze back to her teammate," Hmm…you'd need a little shaping up first, of course, but I think you'd do perfectly fine."

She received a bright smile from the blonde next to her in response, which caused her to beam back at him in kind beside herself .Of course, she wasn't going to allow him to revel in his victory for long.

"Yeah, that doesn't mean you get to slack off like you do when you sleep all day!"

Naruto raised his hands in defense and stifled a giggle," I won't! I won't!"

But he couldn't hold in his amusement any longer, as he soon broke into a fit of giggles. It wasn't a long laugh, but still it managed to cause a few tears to almost well up his eyes in joy. He had quite his share of fun with this entire conversation with his teammate, a bit sad that it had come to an end so soon.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan."

Sakura had resumed her initial position beside Naruto, herself also exhausted from having had too much fun from her earlier conversation with her best friend. At his show of appreciation just then, she turned to face him in curiosity, her green eyes meeting his blue ones. There was a warm look in his gaze just then.

"For what?"

"For being you." He then flashed her one of his trademark smiles, stretching from one end of his ear to another.

Sakura felt her heart flutter a little at his show of sincerity just then, but she didn't want him to know that. She proceeded to pinch the bridge of his nose, before remarking," Either way, it's too early to be talking about marriage. First of all, we have a mission to deal with."

Naruto was faintly aware of the sound of wood on wood, coming to the realization that the ship they were on had hit the edge of a wooden platform. They had finally reached ashore one of the Hidden Cloud islands. The trip had been surprisingly shorter than he had expected it to be, and he felt a little dismayed that it had to come to an end so soon.

"Let's go," he told his teammate brusquely, and the two proceeded to extricate themselves from the surface of the cabin they were resting their backs on earlier. They proceeded to descend the steps of the ship they were on, but what awaited them at the bottom of the ship was something that would haunt them as long as they were on the village.

"Welcome, travelers from the village Hidden in the Leaf!

Killer Bee at your service, yo!"

There stood a man with dark skin, plus a well toned body. He had white hair upon his head and a goatee with similar color at his chin. On the rest of his body, he was draped in the standard Cloud uniform, the standard one-strap, one-shoulder flak jacket, plus a long, red rope belt tied on his waist, the standard Kumo hand and shin guards, shinobi sandals and a white scarf around his neck. Said man was the Eight Tails Jinchuuriki, Killer Bee.

The two members of Team Seven looked at each other wordlessly, drops of sweat visible at both their foreheads.

"Who is this guy?"

 **A/N:** Well, there's the chapter folk. I'm a bit sorry I delayed on the update, I didn't realize I hadn't updated this for a month, but well, here is chapter 4. Regarding Naruto going to Kumogakure with Sakura, I know in the manga he went with Gai and the other jounin, but in this story I don't think there's any need for the other jounin to go, since well, Sakura is his teammate and technically this is something that affects both of them. Other than that, I hope this chapter turned out okay. Read, enjoy and review!


	5. I Won't Allow It

**Chapter 5**

 **I Won't Allow it**

"This is…quite an interesting place," Sakura mused as she traversed the candle lit pathway of the temple they were currently in.

"I know, we don't even have such a temple in Konoha," Naruto agreed, walking in place beside Sakura and his hands behind his head.

Sakura placed a hand under her chin," Hmm, true enough, as far as I can remember. The only one I remember is the one for Chiriku-san."

It had been a roller coaster ever since they came to Hidden Cloud village. At first, Sakura had thought that they would be allowed time to relax before being briefed. But once they had met Killer Bee on the beach, they had met Killer Bee on the port; they had been taken straight to the Raikage's office.

At first, Sakura had been overwhelmed by being in the presence of being in a Kage she didn't know, unlike being with Gaara or Tsunade. The room was quite different from Tsunade's. She could see equipment which Lee would seem working with, as there were weights just placed near where the Raikage sat, and near the door was a boxing bag.

Surprisingly enough however, the meeting with the Raikage had been awfully short. He spared one glance at them from the corner of his eye at the vantage point he was standing at, made a low guttural sound that sounded like one of approval, before dismissing them with a wave of his hand and telling them to go with Killer Bee.

Thanks to that little debacle with the Raikage, Sakura barely had time to see around the village like she had secretly hoped to, but luckily enough; they did not need to walk long to their supposed destination. However, once they had reached the temple they found out they had to walk quite a ways.

"What's wrong? You don't look too hot over there?" Naruto asked his teammate.

They had finally reached a door, which gave Sakura a chance to pause and hold her breath, a welcome break after all the walking they had done. Currently, the pink haired woman had placed her hands on her knees, and was panting a tad heavier than normal.

Looking up a little, Naruto spotted a trickle of sweat on her brow, before she replied," I'm just a little tired is all. "Arching her body upwards and placing her hands on her waist, she added in a raised tone," I thought that this trip would be relaxing, since it was my first time to Kumo and all. I'm dissatisfied with how we've been moving non-stop ever since we got here," she concluded, puffing out her cheeks in a show of irritation.

Naruto smiled nervously before answering," Sorry about that, but we're finally here, I think?" He turned to face the shades wearing man before them, a hopeful look on his face, praying that he was right.

Killer Bee mirrored Naruto's actions just then, and offered a warm smile at the blonde man before gesturing at him with a thumbs-up to show that Naruto was right. Naruto let out a sigh of relief, closing his eyes momentarily to catch his breath, which had unknowingly been running out on him. Opening them again, he focused on the man standing before him to look at him properly for the first time ever since they had made his acquaintance at the port.

Now that he pondered on it, Naruto realized that he had not had a chance to converse properly with the shades wearing man ever since they had gotten there. The blonde man had a funny feeling there was more than met the eye with Killer Bee, but since he could not place his finger on it at the moment, he realized there was naught he could do but wait till he learned more about him.

"So, where are we?" The Nine Tailed Junchuuriki finally got round to asking, finally finishing his assessment of the area they were currently in. From what he could tell, the candle lit pathway had come to a stop, and all that lay ahead of them was a door that led into quite an illuminated room, owing to the light they could see from outside. Aligned on the walls of the pathway, there were several Boddhisatva –like structures which were headless.

"This is called the Chamber of Isolation. It's the temple where I trained to master the Eight Tails," Killer Bee explained to them in a surprisingly coherent manner, it was the first time that both Naruto and Sakura had heard him speaking in a normal way.

Still, what caught the pink haired girl's attention was the fact that…

"Wait, Eight Tails?" She asked, not sure whether or not she had heard the right thing from the taller man.

Killer Bee nodded. "Yep." Turning to face them, a broad smile was etched on his face," I'm the Eight Tails Jinchuuriki, Killer Bee."

Both members of Team Seven were amazed, Sakura more than Naruto, owing to the manner her mouth was agape at the moment. Naruto's eyebrows arched upwards a little. "Wha-"the pink haired girl muttered as if she was in a daze, but at the same time Naruto's mind was already coursing with thoughts.

 _So that's why I got that feeling from him, it's the same feeling I got when I first met Gaara._

Sakura found her voice a few moments later, choosing to inquire," But why would the Eight Tails have anything to do with us?" At that moment, however, something seemed to spark in her mind, as she turned to look at her blonde haired friend, who had been eerily silent for a while now.

Killer Bee seemed to have realized that Sakura had already arrived at the answer of the question she was seeking. "That's right. It's something to do with Naruto here. I'm supposed to train him to master the Nine Tails."

"No." The answer came before Naruto could register what the older man had told him. Something in his gut told him that he should have already expected such a response from Sakura from the moment the Nine Tails was mentioned, but still, it did not prevent him from being surprised.

"I won't allow it," she said in a chilly tone, adding on to her first statement, and when Naruto turned to face her, he saw the same expression on her face that mirrored her tone. It sent chills through him.

On the contrary, however, Killer Bee looked puzzled. "Hmm, this is quite a surprise. I thought you came here with him because you expected something like this to happen."

Sakura's gaze was unrelenting, similar to her resolve regarding the issue that Killer Bee had brought up. Naruto was still looking at his teammate silently, but etched on his face was an expectant expression. He was slightly curious about why she was so vehement in her decision.

"But it doesn't make any sense!" She said in a slightly elevated tone. Turning to look at Naruto, she nearly caused the blonde to leap out of his skin owing to the sharp look on her expression at the moment.

"Last time you accessed the Kyuubi's powers you nearly died!" She addressed him in the same manner of tone she had been talking with for a while now. "Plus almost destroyed what was left of the village. Sakura shook her head vigorously," Plus there was also the time you went four tails when you were fighting Orochimaru. You don't know how worried I was watching you back then!"

By the time she was done explaining to Naruto why she thought this was a bad idea, she was nearly out of breath, and her breaths had become dangerously fast paced. She placed a hand on her chest and clutched it tightly, as the memories from the time at the Heaven & Earth Bridge came flooding her memories. She grits her teeth to hold back the anxiety that washed over her anew, something that did not go unnoticed by Naruto.

"Sakura-chan…." He started mildly.

 _I didn't think she would feel this strongly regarding it._

The blonde man was not sure what to say in such a situation, so he chose to say the only thing that had stood out to him regarding all that Sakura had told him.

"That's the first time you've talked about it openly," he said, with a slight tone of awe in his voice just then.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders a little before responding," Well, a lot of stuff has happened since then, plus well, I don't want to see you go through something like that ever again." Naruto's eyes widened momentarily, surprised that Sakura was worrying about him that much. It was a bit flattering when the words rung in his ears, and he giggled nervously. Much to Sakura's relief, however, Naruto was too caught up in what she had said to notice the blush that soon invaded her cheeks.

Another bout of silence enveloped the room after the short back and forth Naruto and Sakura had just then, but luckily enough, he was not alone in the matter, as the shades wearing man decided to speak up at that point. It had taken him a while to take in everything that Sakura had said, and after mulling it in his mind a little.

"True enough, the risk itself is high. But don't get the wrong idea, miss," Killer Bee explained to Sakura matter of factly, using as much patience as he could muster in his tone.

The pink haired girl looked up at Killer Bee. "What do you mean?" The Eight Tails caught the hint of a hopeful expression on her visage.

He responded," While it's true Naruto will be forced to fight the Nine Tails in order to tap into its power, he won't be doing it alone. In case anything goes awry, I'll be there to step in at once."

Sakura's face lit up at the glimmer of hope she had been offered by the older man. "Really?" A smile threatened to break out on her face, but there was still hesitation that tugged somewhere inside her. She was not sure whether this was entirely the right thing to do at all.

Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder at that point, and Sakura could not help but wonder whether he had done that on purpose in order to dissipate her remaining doubts about the matter. It was slightly vexing the effect that Naruto had on her, but she could not help and do anything about it at the moment. "Sakura-chan, let's trust Bee old man for now. There's a reason the Raikage put us in his care, don't you think?"

The Medic did not respond immediately, instead choosing to close her eyes and cross her arms over her chest as she agonized over what she was supposed to do. After what seemed a long while, with Sakura bobbing her head left and right and an eerie silence had enveloped where the three shinobi were, she opened her eyes and said to Naruto," As long as you promise not to do anything reckless then."

That seemed to be the cue that Naruto was waiting for, as a smile broke out on to his face and he showed a thumbs up to Sakura with his other free hand. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." She managed a weak smile back at him, and Naruto released his hold over her shoulder before turning to face the shades wearing man before them. Killer Bee nodded brusquely, before taking a step into the blinding light that was on the other side of the door. Following in his steps, Naruto and Sakura fell in place behind him, and Naruto said in an enthusiastic tone before they were swallowed up by the light.

"Yosh, now that that's settled, let's go!"

 **A/N:** Apologies for the awfully short chapter, but I'd like to think of this chapter as a transition chapter between the first part of the story and what's to come next. I was always curious what Sakura would say if she caught wind of Naruto's Nine Tails training, as she didn't go to Turtle Island with him, so well this chapter helped to show that. I hope I caught her character well enough.

Another note, I decided to skip the whole bit with the Waterfall of Truth that happened in the manga/anime. I felt that if I wrote that part, it would mirror my other story too much, **'Embrace My Darkness.'** And that wouldn't amount to something new, right? At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and look forward to the next update.

Love y'all.


	6. Hope & Despair

**Chapter 6**

 **Hope & Despair**

"Are you sure everything is fine? That he's okay in there?"

The question rolled off Sakura's tongue for the umpteenth time that day. It wasn't something that she was exactly aware of herself, as currently, her heart was in her mouth. It couldn't be helped after all.

Quite a while had passed ever since they had entered the training chamber, and Naruto had tapped into his inner conscience in order to commence his training to obtain the Nine Tails' power. And as expected, there had been no response from his body for a while now, as his eyes were pursed close in concentration, and his arms were resting on his crossed legs.

Killer Bee, who was currently standing a few paces from where Naruto sat as he watched him intently, while Skura was seated on the ground, in a position where she was directly facing Naruto, nodded to the girl. He had been humming to himself in a low tone all this time, possibly in an attempt to calm him down. The Eight Tailed vessel probably felt just as nervous as Sakura about all that was going on, even if he didn't let it show in his outward expression at the moment.

Sakura, as much as she tried to tell herself that everything was okay and that she was probably worrying over things a little too much, found her unable to relax. She had tried steadying her mind and calming her nerves by keeping her mind off what was happening at the moment, but found it a completely impossible task. The solution that she had come to was asking Killer Bee regarding everything that was happening at the moment. She wasn't exactly proud of it, but she had a feeling that if she didn't keep herself busy she would probably pace up and down the room, a habit that would ultimately get her exhausted.

"Does the training normally take this long?"

This time Killer Bee actually spoke up in response to her question. He bobbed his head to the side as he pondered over a reliable answer, and once he had found a suitable one he turned his head back to Sakura," At most, it doesn't take more than a day, although it depends on the Jinchuuriki. The sooner he manages to get the Nine Tails power under control, the sooner the training will be done."

He paused a little, before continuing, this time trying to sound as optimistic as he usually was whenever he was in high spirits. "Don't worry about it. I was able to see him safely right through the most difficult part. Right now, I'd say that he should be nearly done."

Despite all that, Sakura didn't seem entirely convinced. The look on her face easily gave Killer Bee the impression she needed more reassurance. Of course, the shades wearing man took note of this, prompting him to go on, "He's really strong, you know. For a Jinchuuriki to decide to tame their Tailed Beast usually takes a lot of resolve and guts for them. You don't get people like him every day. You should know this first hand as his teammate."

The Medic lowered her head before responding this time, and when she spoke up her voice came out in a low, subdued tone. "I know that. It's just that…I've seen him push himself like this so many times." A memory prodded at the front of her mind just then, of a time not so long ago when she was watching Naruto training for his Rasenshuriken, all while it was raining all around them." And each time, I find myself worrying what will happen. What if something happens to him and I won't be able to bring him back." She then remembers how helpless she was when she had watched Naruto go into his four tailed form for the first time at the Heaven & Earth Bridge.

The second memory brought with it a feeling of guilt muddled with shame. She had thought that she had been able to get over her fears from her talk with Naruto earlier, but it seems like they had lingered even more than she was willing to accept. Realizing what she had just confessed to the burly man, she quickly looked up in Killer Bee's direction, and managed to placate a smile on her face, albeit it proving harder than normal. "Sorry, I guess I'm kind of being a bother with asking all these questions over and over again and saying all this, huh?"

As she had expected, Killer Bee did not say anything for a while, and she feared that she had indeed irritated him with her continuous worries. She turned her gaze away from him, before proceeding to bury her face in her knees in guilt. Duly, Killer Bee took note of the internal conflict she was facing at the moment, as it expressed itself on her face and in her actions just then, and just before she turned her face away from him, he noticed that there were tears glistening at the corners of both her eyes. She seemed to be trying her hardest to hold them back, and that might have been part of the reason she had turned her gaze away from him in the first place. He decided not to ask her about them, finding another manner to change the subject and in a way that would initiate conversation from the girl once more.

Still, he couldn't help but find himself impressed at how much Sakura was devoted to her teammates' wellbeing at the moment. In the Shinobi world, it was quite difficult finding people of said character.

He smiled. "Don't apologize. Well, to be honest with you, it's not usually common to find someone worrying over a Jinchuuriki like you are right now. In normal circumstances, they would be treated with indifference, and their training wouldn't even be under a watchful eye. Heck, I don't even remember my own brother watching over me like this when I was training to watch over the 8 tails."

"Brother?" That was the first time Sakura had heard anything of the man having a brother. Her earlier turmoil momentarily forgotten, she perked her head up to look at her companion, and the man was slightly relieved to find out that she hadn't broken out into tears.

"Yeah, you met him earlier. My brother is the Raikage," he said in a matter of fact tone, earning him a wide eyed stare from the pink haired girl beside him.

It was the first time she was hearing of this, but the more she pondered on it, the more she realized it seemed to add up with everything that she had seen happening in the Raikage's office. Back then, she had noticed the Raikage talking to Killer Bee in a seemingly casual manner, more than she would expect him to talk to any other civilian, well at least according to the nature she had gotten from the man. It distantly reminded her of the way Tsunade interacted with Naruto whenever she summoned him to her office, although in the case of the Raikage and Killer Bee there seemed to be a more causal relationship.

So they were brothers then. It was kind of heartening to think of it that way. Still, the realization, coupled with what Killer Bee had said earlier, sparked a little curiosity in her, and she felt herself compelled to ask….

"Why wasn't he here with you? What if something had happened to you?" It bothered her little that the two were siblings, and in a moment where the younger brother was in mortal peril, his older brother had not been there for him. She could not imagine what would have happened or how she would have reacted if she had caught wind of Naruto participating in something dangerous whilst she was not around.

Killer Bee explained," He needs to watch over the village, ya know. The village always comes before the individual. But anyway, that's beside the point. Sakura, what I'm trying to tell you is, even if he wasn't there for me physically as I was training, I knew that he believed in me. Out there, I knew that he was waiting for me, so there was no way I was going to let myself fail and not see my brother again."

Sakura knew exactly what he meant by the last part, before Naruto had gone on to his training, she had heard the older man tell him that in case he failed to subdue the Tailed Beast and instead it got the better of him, then the seal that had been placed on it by the Fourth Hokage would break, causing the Nine Tails to break out, devour Naruto and finally be set free. Of course, Killer Bee had guaranteed that in case that happened, they would seal the Nine Tails away in the room they were in still another Jinchuuriki showed up, but sadly, nothing could be done to save Naruto if things really did escalate to that level.

The shades wearing man stopped talking momentarily, allowing Sakura to take in that entire he had said, hoping that this time this would be able to set her at ease. Luckily, his hopes were not misplaced, as he slowly took in the look of understanding on her face. Once sure that a now steady expression had made its way onto her face, he allowed himself to continue.

"You really care for him, don't you?" There was a tone of warmth in his voice, plus a satisfactory smile on his face.

Sakura nodded brusquely to this, a wave of embarrassment washing over her as she realized the prospect of answering the question was more embarrassing than she thought. It did not exactly abate all her embarrassment, as her cheeks were a little flushed, and she hoped that Killer Bee would not pick up on it.

"Then you don't need to worry. Now I'm convinced that he'll definitely get through this," the Eight Tailed vessel said with more confidence than he had in any of his other conversations with Sakura. Amazingly, he had also managed to inject into himself more confidence regarding the matter, likewise feeling more confident in the blonde kid that he would definitely come out on top against the Nine Tails.

That did the trick effectively. Slowly, he watched as the look if doubt muddled with uncertainty that had lingered on Sakura's face longer than he had wished slowly melts away, and in its place a look of hope came to fill the spot. Her green eyes got back the shine that they had when Killer Bee had first encountered her and Naruto on the ship. This time, when she smiled at him, he could see the honesty and sincerity on her face, and he mirrored her expression in kind with as much satisfaction as he was experiencing.

"Thank you, Killer Bee-san."

She averted her gaze from the older man, returning to her teammate, who, as she had expected, was still caught up in his endeavors. His eyes were still closed together in concentration, and his body was perfectly still, making it seem like a slight gust of wind would be enough to push him over. She wondered what he was going through in his mind right now, but this time, as she focused her gaze on him, there was a look of pleasantness muddled with nervousness. She had more reason to look forward to him succeeding now, the sooner he won the sooner they would reunite.

There was also the tiny issue of a certain marriage that resonated at the back of her mind, but she decided not to dwell on it first as there were more important things to be dealt with at the moment.

She placed her full faith in Naruto this time, slightly berating herself internally for ever doubting him in the first place. Like he had always done all the other times, Naruto would definitely come through victorious.

 _Make sure, you come back to me._

A few more minutes of watching passed, with nothing being said between Sakura and Killer Bee, as they both watched Naruto expectantly.

What followed seemed like something out of a resurfaced nightmare for the pink haired Medic.

It started as a mass of red bubbles that appeared on the area near Naruto's abdomen. All of a sudden, it began enveloping his entire body, and Sakura felt her heart leaping to her mouth. A terrible memory resurfaced, but she did her best to reassure herself that things weren't repeating themselves.

"What's happening to him?!" Her voice was shaky and riddled with panic when she posed the question to the Eight Tails Jinchuuriki. She hoped against all hope that it was different this time that things weren't going to end catastrophically.

She could have never been more wrong.

"The Nine Tails is putting up a fight against Naruto. And…it's _winning_ ," Killer Bee said, the last part of the sentence being emphasized in a dark tone. All semblance of calmness and composure that he was exuding from his body before were gone, his hands now raised lightly and clenched into fists as he watched the situation with the boy before him unfold.

 _It's happening again._

Sakura did not know when she had gotten off the floor, all her senses seemed to have taken their leave of her as she scrambled towards her teammate.

The red chakra slowly made its way around Naruto's body, covering him like some kind of cloak. Luckily enough, it didn't thrash about wildly like it was prone to, so there was still hope that not all was lost. Still, Sakura could not help but feel that familiar feeling of helplessness creep up into her gut.

It was happening all over again.

 _No, please no._

 _Don't go._

She stretched out her hand weakly before her, a feeble attempt to reach out to Naruto and make contact, although she was not exactly sure what she would be able to do in such a situation. That wouldn't prevent her from trying though. Before she could reach him, however, a hand was placed on her shoulder, stopping her in mid-motion.

"Wait. It's too early to jump to conclusions. Let's first see what happens before resorting to anything," Killer Bee said behind her, trying to be as calm as possible. However, Sakura subtly picked up on the slight fear in his voice just then, no matter how well he tried to mask it.

Frustrating as it was, she had to go with his word here. After all, he had the benefit of more knowledge and expertise in this situation. The best thing she could do in this situation was observed and sees how things would transpire. Hadn't she resolved to wait and believe in him earlier? That also included seeing him through the bad things, she realized as soon as she had calmed down.

It was something easier said than done, however. She could not remember any other moment in her life when waiting for something had proved as hard as it was now. Perhaps that explained why she had chosen not to settle back in her original position, being content with watching Naruto while standing as Killer Bee had been doing all this time.

For a moment, the chakra that had covered Naruto entirely did nothing but just swirl around his body constantly. Naruto's flesh had not started peeling off, which meant that it was a harmless shroud…at least for the moment. The boy himself did not seem to have realized what was happening to his body, as he was still in his calm posture.

Slowly, Sakura felt her heart rate receding back to normal from the accelerated rate it was beating at prior. She heaved a small sigh of relief, bringing up her free hand to rest on her heart as she attempted to steady her nerves, while at the same time allowing her muscles to relax.

There was a glimmer of hope in her heart as she took heart in the fact that Naruto was probably doing his hardest in there, hence the momentary halting of the transformation. She wanted to cheer for him out loud, even if she knew that there was a snowball's chance in hell that he could not hear her.

 _Go for it, Naruto._

Alas, her feeble moment of hope turned out to be a fleeting sensation.

The chakra on the right side of Naruto's body immediately began to thrash about wildly, and before long Sakura found herself staring at the shadow of a beast that had injured her quite a while back. There was no way that she could mistake that dark crimson shade of skin, plus that empty white stare which had currently covered Naruto's right eye. Behind him, the chakra there had begun to morph itself into the shape of a tail, and before long a second tail sprouted from the shroud of chakra.

That was it.

The final straw that had broken the camel's back had fallen, and all of a sudden Sakura found her mind thrown into a maelstrom of confusion. All her thoughts that were previously garnered towards Naruto's success and how they were going to celebrate as soon as he had completed his training were thrown into frenzy, and a familiar, dark feeling began creeping into the annals of her mind.

She wrenched her shoulder free from Killer Bee's grasp, and the last words that she heard from the burly man were," Wait, Sakura! It's too dangerous to approach Naruto right now! Don't be too hasty…..!

Being hasty or even reckless was not an option at this point.

Finally drawing level with her teammate, she placed one hand on his left shoulder, which luckily had not been morphed by the malicious chakra. The instant contact with the shroud of chakra scalded her skin, causing her to wince in pain as she batted an eye, but she did not flinch or remove her hand.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to call out to Naruto and tell him to snap out of it, the words got stuck in her throat.

Then everything went pitch black.

 **A/N:** Something small about this chapter, I purposely decided to leave out the bit about Naruto's fight with the Kyuubi/Kurama, I feel as if it would mirror canon too much and it would be a lazy way to write the chapter, so instead I decided to make the chapter written from Sakura's point of view. Killer Bee was also there, and that way I was able to show the story from two different perspectives, Sakura was able to talk to someone who had been through what Naruto was experiencing at the moment, and Killer Bee was able to see the dynamics between Sakura and Naruto first hand (in Sakura's situation here), so in a sense you can say she embodied all the NaruSaku in this chapter. I hope that helps!

As always, make sure to read, review, and enjoy the story guys!

Merry Christmas!


	7. Uzumaki Kushina

**Chapter 6**

 **Uzumaki Kushina**

The world was covered in sheen of white, starting from a place she was not sure of and ending at infinity. It was a perfect contrast to the darkness that had enveloped her moments ago, but now, even that seemed to be a distant memory.

Was this a dream?

The girl's memory was hazy, and at that point, even trying to remember anything sent a dull pain coursing through her entire essence.

She could not feel anything for a good while, such that she was not even sure whether her physical body was in one piece anymore or not.

She seemed to float endlessly in a vast space, for what seemed to be an infinite time….then...

She felt a dull nudge on some part of her body.

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan."

That voice…..sounded so familiar. But from where?

She tried to move the part of her body where she had felt the nudge in response to the dull feeling she had received from whoever was calling out to her, but she was still not sure whether the person on the other side could feel it. Her mind reeled in dull pain as she tried to recall whatever part of the body it was that she had been nudged at, and this time, when she racked her memory, it didn't hurt as much as it did the first time.

It was her shoulder that was being tapped.

"It's okay now….you're safe."

As if the words carried a will and weight of their own, slowly but surely, her vision began to clear up.

Gods, how she had missed the warmth in that voice.

The world around her was still caked in white, but this time, in front of her, was a face that she had sorely missed for a good while now.

Crouched on both his knees with his hands resting on top of them, Naruto smiled brightly at her.

He was in front of her. He was okay.

This definitely had to be a dream.

But then, if it was, what was with that smile, that she had seen several times in the past and it made her feel like mirroring one of her own right back at him.

There was no mistake, this was definitely real.

And just like that, everything prior to the white all came rushing at her like a flood, and suddenly, she felt the urge to hit the blonde over the head….hard.

Sure enough, she made sure to follow through on her impulse, but unfortunately, Naruto was able to duck in time and out of the way of the emerald eyed girl's fist.

"Sakura-chan, whoa-!" He dodged another fist, this time aimed for her gut. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" He asked with a slightly nervous voice, his hands outstretched before him in a manner of self defense. Naruto was well aware of her outbursts of anger, being on the receiving end of several of them in the past, but this time, as far as he could recall, there was nothing wrong that he had done.

"Idiot," she responded, before continuing with her barrage of assaults from earlier. She wasn't going to feel satisfied until at least one of them hit the mark.

 _Do you know how worried I was?_

The vestiges of a crimson color cropped up into her memory, and she shook her head to rid herself of the stray thoughts.

Tears stung at the corner of her eyes, a mixture of the relief and annoyance she felt welling up in her, but she wasn't about to show the blonde man just how much distress he had caused her.

No, at least not until she had let out all of the feelings inside her.

"What do you think you're doing to my son, ttebane!" A second voice sounded from behind Naruto, and the pink haired girl halted in her attempts to land a hit on him. From what she could pick up of the voice, it definitely belonged to a woman, and this sent her thoughts into an array of confusion.

Falling on his behind, obviously exhausted from constantly darting about, Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the source of the voice as well, remembering who he was with her initially before Sakura had shown up in his inner world through means unknown to him.

Naturally, her eyes travelled to behind her blonde teammate, and when she saw the source of the voice, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Sure enough, as her initial impression had told her, there was a woman standing there, but it wasn't just any ordinary woman.

She was probably the most beautiful woman that Sakura had ever seen in her entire life.

Red hair trudged down her neck and shoulders and to the small of her back, and it flowed so beautifully one could tell it was soft to the touch even from afar. Her eyes were violet in color and she was clad in a high colored, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose fitting dress with a wrist band on her left wrist and standard shinobi sandals.

Unfortunately for the younger girl, her momentary daze as she took in the older woman's beauty wasn't going to be long lived, for before she knew it, the beautiful woman had already closed the distance between herself and Sakura, marching to the girl in oddly heavy steps. For some odd reason she was…

…seething?

Her teeth were gritted in visible anger, and her eyes were dilated as she lunged forward with both her arms outstretched, obviously aiming for Sakura.

The Medic flinched a little, debating in her mind whether to retreat or not, but before she could reach a decision, her teammate was in front of her, grabbing the woman by her waist and pushing her back, preventing her from reaching his teammate.

"But she was hurting you!" The red haired woman said in a matter of fact tone, as if laying out obviously why she had a bone to pick with Sakura just then, for something that she had yet to do.

Naruto pushed back his mom desperately, his face crunched up in an expression of dismay. This was definitely not one of his better days, and surprisingly enough, the source of all his woes at said moment were the two women who were closest to him. He found it quite ironic, but at the moment he wasn't exactly allowed to delve in such thoughts, so he focused himself on keeping his mom away from Sakura as much as possible.

"Huh? Have you forgotten what you first did when I showed up here? Jeez mom, talk about the pot calling the kettle black." That seemed to do the trick, and the red haired woman calmed down some, but Naruto was not quite done with talking to her.

"Sakura-chan is mostly like this you know," he folded his arms over his chest defiantly, and then closed his eyes. "Besides, who knows what your punches will do to her if they do land on her?"

Mom?

The Medic was not exactly sure whether she had heard right just then, and she blinked twice as if to check whether she was still dreaming. The scenery around her and the two people before her still remained, which meant that all this was definitely bona fide.

In all her time of knowing her blonde teammate, she had never heard any mention of his mother from him.

Her eyes surveyed the older woman from head to toe once more, this time making sure to pay extra attention to any details she may have missed the first time. The only lucky thing that had sprung up from the older woman inching closer to her was that Sakura could now look at her properly in close proximity. She had to verify the truth behind Naruto's earlier words.

It was definitely there.

That faces shape…

That catch phrase from earlier…

She hadn't paid attention to it then, but now, it all seemed to make sense since it sounded awfully similar to what Naruto always harped on about whenever he was excited about something.

There was no mistaking it, she was definitely his mother.

The pinkette found her at a severe loss for words at that moment, and a rush of embarrassment washed over her as she was sure that she was not even supposed to be there at that moment. It was something special for Naruto, and she was truly happy for him, so she wanted him to enjoy it by himself. After all, he was the one who was always without parents for the entirety of his life, and it wasn't rocket science that seeing all his peers with their parents must have definitely been suffering for him.

Had Naruto known about his mom all along?

A pang of disappointment struck a chord somewhere in Sakura, and she couldn't help the slight feeling of being left out in what was an essential part of her teammate's life. She knew she was being selfish, but somehow, she wanted to partake of some of the special moments in his life.

Then again, some things were too special to be shared with others, no matter how close they were to you.

Taking comfort in this thought and smiling softly to herself, she steadied herself and introduced herself to the now calm woman.

"Hey, Naruto's mom. I'm Haruno Sakura, your son's teammate and…..friend."

That was definitely an awkward first impression, but it was mostly due to Sakura debating whether to introduce herself as just a regular friend to Naruto or to cite that she was his best friend, as they had been through thick and thin together. That….may has been too much information though.

Sakura wondered whether she should redo her introduction, but Kushina's current demeanor put a halt to these thoughts.

The red head still seemed apprehensive about the girl, owing to the way she folded her arms across her chest, and the stern gaze she focused on her. It felt like being in your friend's house for the first time, in this case your friend being a member of the opposite sex.

After a few minutes that seemed oddly like an eternity to Sakura, the older woman released a small sigh, before finally moving to introduce herself.

"Uzumaki Kushina. Pleased to make your acquaintance-ttebane!"

So she was an Uzumaki. That did explain why her teammate's first name was Uzumaki, and why he was the only one in Konoha with that name.

Standing besides his mom, Naruto let out a sigh of relief, glad that things had finally abated back to normal.

However, things couldn't entirely be said to have gone back to normal, at least not yet.

There was a resounding quake in the vicinity, something that sent jitters up Sakura's spine.

Naruto's expression suddenly turned to a dead pan serious one. He began scanning the area around him with his eyes. He swore.

"So he wasn't entirely down yet."

"Of course, the Nine Tails isn't going to be brought down that easily," his mother said beside him, herself also busy with looking around the vicinity as if searching for the source of the tremors.

Something clicked in Sakura's mind.

 _Oh yeah, there was still that wasn't there?_

In the light of all the frenzy regarding her and her teammates safety, she had forgotten to inquire about how he was still in one piece. The last time she checked, the Kyuubi's chakra would normally leave Naruto's skin scalded, the burns horrible enough to make Sakura flinch at the sight of them. She could have gone the rest of her life without seeing anything that horrendous ever again.

Perhaps that had been why she had moved purely out of instinct from the moment that she had seen that red chakra cover the whole of Naruto's body.

Kushina's voice interrupted her thoughts. "I was able to restrain it with my chains, but they were going to hold for only a short time."

 _So that was why Naruto was looking healthy at the moment._

 _Thank goodness._

"Mom, let me-" Naruto started with a determined glare, already making his way to the front and intending to walk past his mom, but surprising him, his mom held up a hand in front of him.

"You kids just stay there. Let mom handle this."

Sakura had to admit the tone with which Kushina had said that, plus the smug grin on her face as she said it, were pretty fucking impressive.

Still, there was one thing that bothered her teensy weensy bit.

 _Let mom handle this._

The last time Sakura had checked, she had gotten off the wrong foot with this woman, so hearing she include Sakura when she said 'mom' was definitely weird.

There was going to be time to think about it later, of course.

Kushina spoke up once more, this time addressing the pink haired girl, catching her completely by surprise.

"Sorry, Sakura. Getting to know you better is going to take a while, but," Kushina said from the corner of her eye, before turning and winking at the pink haired girl," Take care of my idiot son till then, won't you?"

Sakura's cheeks flared, and her eyes widened in surprise, but she was able to form a coherent response, this time with a gesture of her own in return.

She balled her hand into a fist and raised it into the air," You got it!"

So she took her place besides her teammate, who seemed to be confused and amused at the same time due to the interaction he had just seen between the two women.

Kushina exhaled a little, relaxing her muscles, before she began going through a series rapidly, so quickly that Sakura could not confirm a good number of them. In that short span of time before everything went to hell, the Medic took the chance to tug Naruto's arm.

Naruto turned to look at her, a knowing smile on his face, as if already knowing what she was going to say.

"Your mom…is one hell of a person."

 **A/N:** Okay I know that this update is waaay overdue, so allow me to apologize first before anything else for two things, the awfully short length of this chapter after the lengthy previous one, and also the delay in updating this story. 5 months is way too long to wait for an update, so for that I do offer my humblest apologies.

With that out of the way, I do hope that you enjoy this chapter and the interactions between Sakura and Kushina. This was more of a set up chapter than anything, so I promise the next one will definitely get longer, but be prepared for a twist! Shit is about to get decidedly real next chappie!


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